Finale of a Pleasant Nightmare
by karkashan
Summary: As the curtains in this Act are being made ready to be drawn to a close, one last, pivotal scene must be acted out. For the fate of Koholint, nay, the very world, hinges upon the outcome of this scene. - Link's Awakening, Final Battle - slight LinkZelda


Finale of a Pleasant Nightmare

"Long ago...we were born of nightmares....and yet the world of dreams was not enough to satisfy us...Escape from that realm had become a necessary goal...We fought to free ourselves from the world of dreams, and for a glorious moment, we were! But those who govern reality, those foul waking world's goddesses destroyed our...hosts...and we were forced to become one with realm of dreams once again...

"But fortune smiled upon us...for we soon found ourselves within the dreams of the Wind Fish, the Lord of Winds who has the power to make dreams into reality...And so we coerced the Wind Fish into a deeper slumber, forcing it into this very egg that was formed by our magics, keeping him locked away here, never to wake...

"Except...you...you had to interfere...You located the Instruments of the Sirens....those foreign pieces of magic that harbor a strange connection to the Wind Fish that we cannot fathom..."

Link's eyes widened in shock as a formless shadow began to coalesce into a strange creature made up of pure Darkness. Slowly, a single eye opened up within it's center, and when it did so Link had to shield his eyes from the powerful light that emanated from it.

Once he dropped his arm, Link found himself face to face with Princess Zelda of Hyrule.

"P-princess Zelda!" Link stammered in shock, "Wha-how did I get here? Last I remember, I was fighting the Nightmare..."

Zelda smiled softly and patted Link's folded arms as she sat beside the bed he now lay in, "Don't worry, Link. The Wind Fish explained everything. Apparently, when you had struck the final blow to the powerful Nightmare, it got in a lucky hit in return, knocking you off and giving you a concussion."

Link tried to sit up, but a shooting pain ran through his head, "I'll take your word for it, your Highness." He blinked a couple of times in thought, before asking the daughter of his King one question. "But, my Princess, why don't I remember doing that?"

Zelda chuckled softly, "That's the nature of concussions, Link. Since your brain hadn't yet had the opportunity to move your memories of the incident from your short term memory to your long term memory, the blow to your head caused you to 'forget' everything that had happened in the few minutes before your victory."

Link just stared at her for a few minutes, before replying by saying, "Again, I'll take your word for it, Princess."

Princess Zelda smiled at the young hero as she gently squeezed his left hand, "I'm glad you have such faith in me, Link." Her gaze softened considerably as she glanced meaningfully at his legs before looking right back at him once again, "Do you want to try walking? I want to see how well you can move before I even consider letting you spar with the guards as you usually do."

Link nodded, before grunting a little as the Princess of Hyrule helped him out of bed. He smiled at her, sweat beginning to already form on his brow, as he shakily tried to keep standing on his own. "I think," he said with false bravado, "I could take on the entire Royal Guard right here, right now, your Highness. So if you'll excuse me, Princess...."

Zelda flicked Link's nose in response, a stern expression on her face. "Oh no you don't, Mr. Hero. You may accompany me on a short walk within the Palace grounds, but once that's through it's back to bed for you, mister."

Link smiled cheekily at the slightly irate heir to the throne. "Yes, mom, whatever you say."

Zelda huffed, but still smiled back soon enough. "Just offer me your arm already, Link, I want to show you to my father. He was worried about your health too, you know."

As Link and Zelda exited the bedchamber he had slept in for a long while, the Hero of Light asked his companion, "Really? The old King was worried about little old me, was he?"

Zelda giggled softly, "Well, considering the fact that you practically grew up right outside the Palace, and my father is good friends with your uncle and so he knew you very well, added on top of the reality that you defeated Ganon and set Hyrule free from Darkness, it's no wonder why he would be concerned over you welfare."

Link smirked mischievously as he added, "Don't forget that I also _know you_ very well, Princess."

Zelda's face immediately grew scarlet, "Shh!!!" she said in a panicked tone while covering Link's mouth with her hand. "Do you have any idea what my father would do if he found out about _that_?!"

The serious expression on Zelda's face soon changed to one of grossed out horror once Link licked the palm of her hand that had been covering his mouth.

Zelda shuddered slightly, before linking her arms with Link's and moving down the hallway once again, "Let's just get to where my father and your uncle are waiting for us, Link."

Link dug his heels into the carpet, stopping the two of them in their tracks. "What," said Link in a cold voice, "did you just say?"

"Let's just get to where my father and your uncle are waiting for us," replied Zelda in a puzzled voice, "why do you ask."

"Funny you should say that," said Link as he placed the Koholintian blade on the nape of Zelda's neck, "considering my uncle died of a heart attack two years ago. Now then, why don't we end this charade, Nightmare?"

The fake Zelda grinned maniacally, her teeth unnaturally sharp in the sudden moonlight that had appeared the moment Link had grabbed hold of his blade. "And here I thought you would be happy to see your uncle again, little hero." She then reached down and placed Link's blade in her hands. Putting a sultry look on her face, the fake Zelda ran her tongue over the flat of the blade in a provocative manner. "I know what you need, Link. I think you need a visit from the man who killed your uncle the first time."

"Yes, Link," boomed a sibilant voice from the Darkness at Link's back, "I think it's time you and I had some quality time together."

Link turned around and snarled, "Trinexx, I was hoping I wouldn't see you again." With a flick of his wrist, the Magic Rod was in his hands, the Pegasus boots on his feet were active, and Link was rushing toward the three headed turtle with a speed that's impossible for a normal Hylian.

The Ice Head hissed and attempted to lunge forward and catch Link in its jaws. Before it could do so, Link hopped up onto its head, fired the Magic Rod point blank into its eye, and then proceeded to run up its elongated neck.

The Fire head growled deeply before cocking its head back, opening its jaws, and unleashing an intense stream of fire that emanated from within the stone carapace that was the giant turtle's shell.

Using the power of the Roc's Feather in conjunction with the Pegasus Boots, Link was able to dodge the stream of fire by leaping up and over the Fire Head. Before both feet hit the ground, Link immediately used both items again to launch himself right next to the Fire Head's cranium. Before the beast could even stop it's fire blast, however, Link shoved the Magic Rod into the creature's ear canal and fired.

The Stone Head gave a shuddering sigh, before shedding the stone carapace that served as its shell. As the many stone fragments fell to the ground, a shadowy mass coalesced into a giant, formless, mass; it then promptly attempted to crush Link underneath its weight.

Link dodged out of the way and tried to impale it on his blade, but the sword given to him within the Seashell Palace simply bounced off the creature's rubbery body. The shadow creature's skin resembling another monster, Link was quick to pull out his bag of Magic Powder and sprinkle it on the strange Nightmare. This seemed to work, as the creature shuddered and recoiled until it had bumped into the Stone Snake form of Trinexx.

Letting out a ear-piercing screech, the shadows that made up the Nightmare creature quickly wrapped themselves around the Stone Snake, despite the serpent's views to the contrary. Before a handful of seconds had passed, the Shadow Bot had transformed itself into the Shadow Moldorm, pincers and creepy eyes intact.

The false Zelda's voice rang out in the not-chamber, it's tone mocking as it taunted the young hero while he battled the Shadow Moldorm. "Pitiful, young hero, truly pitiful. If you really think to defeat us, you will have to do better than tha-"

Before the fake Zelda could finish the sentence, Link had finally managed to destroy the Shadow Moldorm by striking its tail repeatedly with his sword. The false Zelda snarled, "This is not the end of your Nightmare yet, young Link. You still have a ways to go if you even want to hope to get to my final form."

Shadows grew at the fake Zelda's feet, surrounding her until they formed a complicated star-like pattern on the ground at her feet. With a snap of her fingers, the shadows rose to attention and formed a cone shape around the false princess. Two eyes formed of pure white light snapped open and shown within the darkness, and as Link watched in morbid fascination a Shadow Aghanim strode forth from the protective confines of the cone of Darkness in which it had once resided.

Not one to drag things out, the Shadow Aghanim immediately shot forth a ball of dark magic. Link was quick to bat it right back at the Nightmare, damaging it considerably. The wizard formed from shadows collapsed back into the Darkness for a few moments, before reappearing elsewhere. Once again, it launched a magic attack at Link, and once again he was ready to bounce it right back. However, this time, before it reached the tip of Link's sword, it shape shifted into a different form so that when Link's sword touched it, it simply split into four mini magic attacks that broke off and hit Link.

Link coughed up blood as he fell towards the ground, any breath held within his lungs completely knocked out of him due to the force of the blast. Shuddering slightly, Link's grip on his blade loosened slightly as he slowly closed his eyes.

The Shadow Aghanim chuckled as it moved to stand over Link's body. "My little hero, you certainly were the greatest of fools. Did you honestly believe yourself capable of killing me? I am the great-"

Once again, the Nightmare was interrupted, this time due to a sword sticking through its head, courtesy of Link. "H-how?" rasped the Shadow Aghanim before it collapsed to the ground, retaking the form of a black haired Zelda before dying.

Link stood up fully, dusting off his clothes as he did so, "I got to hand it to Crazy Tracy, she knows what she's doing with that stuff, to be sure."

A pair of hands began applauding Link behind his back, so the young hero was quick to turn around in time to see an older man, with flaming red hair and a similar face in comparison to Link's, smile as he walked around the corpse of the Stone Snake. "I got to hand it to you, Link," the man said as he strode closer to the young hero, "You did a very good job. I'm proud of you, my son."

"Father," said Link with disgust, "never cared about me, so don't give me that bull."

"Is that so?" said the red haired man. "And what makes you so sure."

"Out of all the people left alive in this world, I knew Mandrag Ganon best." Link hung his head slightly, "To my everlasting shame, I knew him best."

The other man sneered, "Oh? Is that right? So maybe that's the real reason you ran away from Hyrule with your tail between your legs. You couldn't face your precious little Princess, not when you knew..."

"Shut up," said Link.

The other man continued on as if Link hadn't spoken, "...that you were the son of the man who had killed her father. You did, of course, bring her father back using the Triforce, but that still didn't change the fact that your father killed her father right in front of her eyes."

"Shut up..."

The red haired man grinned maniacally, "Why don't you say it with me, boy?! Why don't you shout out to the world that you are the son of Mandrag Ganon! Killer of thousands! Feared by millions!" The man's expression turned mockingly pitiful as he continued, "Especially feared, of course, by the one woman above all others with whom you are in love. Tell me, boy, has she ever looked at you with that same fear in her eyes, as if she is wondering if you'll also kill everyone she loves, just like your father did?"

"Shut up!" shouted Link in an infuriated tone, "I am not my father! Everything he did falls solely on his shoulders, and Zelda never blamed me for what he did, never!"

"Good for you," said the red haired man, before reaching into his own chest and pulling out a pulsing, liquid-like ooze from within. Sneering, he took the mass of shadows and threw it up into the air, causing a noise that sounded like shattering glass to echo within the confines of the not-chamber.

Link's eyes widened as the scenery of the shadowy Hyrule Castle shattered like it was made of glass. The shattered images that had been part of the Hylian Palace transformed into shadows, each of them taking on the form of a crow before flying towards the red haired man.

Once again, the shadows pulsed as they formed together, once again pure Darkness was given form. A Nightmare creature raised its mighty trident above its head, and shadow bats made of flames of evil appeared to answer their master's call.

Activating his Pegasus Boots with a mental command, Link wasted no time in charging forward towards the Shadow Ganon that stood before him wielding the unholy trident. The Nightmare swung his trident down once Link was within range, but the hero was quick to sidestep out of the way and finally impale the dread monster on his blade.

The Shadow Ganon began to open it's jaws impossibly wide, so Link was quick to back away from the creature born of Darkness before whatever it had planned came to fruition.

A strange hiss-like rattle came from within the Shadow Ganon's throat, before the Shadow Lanmolas suddenly erupted from the Nightmare beast's throat with a violent screech. Flying through the air at impossible speeds, it opened its jaws wide so it could relieve Link's neck of his pesky head.

Link remained impassive in the face of the dread creature, before kneeling and blasting the Nightmare point blank with his Magic Rod. The impact of the magical blast forced the shadow being up and over Link to the other side of the chamber, where a collision with the wall caused its neck to snap.

"Hehehehe, not bad boy. I never thought you would force me into this final form of mine." Before Link's eye's, a Darkness unseen before in size and scope came forth from the depths of nothingness to take the form of a creature with a body made of ebony flames. Two arms emanated from its sides, both of them ending in a extremely large, shadow made mace. In the center of the creature's body, a giant eye, filled with a deep, malevolent scorn for all who worshiped the Goddesses, opened slowly as the Nightmare spoke, "I think it is far past the time that I showed you my true power. Tremble at the might that has been given form before you! For I am Nightmare, and therefore I am God!"

Both of the Nightmare's arms began to pulsate with power, before they began to encircle the center of the mad creature, lashing out sporadically as if fighting off invisible adversaries. That is, until, the Nightmare grew closer, that was when the flailing of the arms began to make sense.

Briefly the eye of the dread Dark God opened, and Link, seizing what was probably the only opportunity left to him to finish the beast, used the power of the Roc's Feather to leap over the creature's arms and throw the magical boomerang straight into the monster's eye and by path of flight through the length of the Nightmare's body.

"NO!" screamed the Nightmare in an anguished voice, "I will not allow the nothingness to claim me once again. I will spread the Darkness until the foul Light is blotted out forever. Hear me, Link, I will have my vengeance upon you for this, mark my words! I will arise from the very shadows-"

And with that, it was gone.

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FIN

AN: I've done two 'Final Battle' Zelda fanfics already, (and a third, similar one, that kinda sucks that you won't see) but I've never actually gone into the fights themselves. I've just skated the very edges of them. Well no longer.

I hope you enjoyed this. Until we meet once again, I wish you all well. Here's to a happy tomorrow!

Oh, yeah, almost forgot...Reviews are always welcome, so feel free to if that is your inclination to do so.


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